Rabies

How to recognize rabies in the early stages

Save Pets of Ukraine would like to urge all pet parents and animal shelter workers to vaccinate their pets against rabies every year. We provide a list of symptoms of the disease at each stage in order to recognize it in time.

Rabies is an incurable viral disease that a person can catch from wild or domestic animals, more precisely through the bite of a sick animal or as a result of its saliva coming into contact with fresh wounds, scratches on the skin or mucous membranes.

Today, this disease is registered in 113 countries of the world.

Many international organizations join the annual fight against rabies to completely eliminate the disease.

Since the beginning of 2023, the Save Pets of Ukraine initiative has delivered vaccines to shelters in Ukraine, which were used to inoculate:

⁃ from rabies - 2616 animals;

⁃ from infectious diseases - 2477 animals.

About rabies in numbers:

· 59,000 people and more than 1 million animals die from rabies every year.

· 99% of cases of human disease arise from dog bites.

· people are also often infected by foxes, bats, raccoons, cats and other animals.

· 8.6 billion dollars are allocated annually around the world to combat rabies

Rabies disease of animals has 3 stages:

1. Initial stage (lasts up to five days). Animals:

· have existing bite marks;

· gnaw the bite site;

· affectionate, capricious, wary at the same time;

· have a weak appetite;

· eat inedible things;

· have excessive salivation;

· vomit.

1. Excited stage (2-3 days). During this period, animals:

· Are aggressive;

· Are excited;

· attack;

· try to escape;

· gnaw the ground;

· eat inedible things;

· have convulsions;

· vomit;

· receive partial paralysis;

· may have strabismus.

2. Paralytic stage (2-4 days), when animals have:

· exhaustion;

· complete paralysis;

· death

Everyone who comes into contact with animals should remember that rabies is an incurable disease. If you are bitten by a stray or wild animal, seek medical attention immediately!

If a doctor is not available, then immediately wash the wound thoroughly for 15 minutes or longer using wound cleaners or disinfectants.

After that, be sure to seek medical help as soon as possible.